have you seen the little pieces of the people we have been?

I get so nostalgic every time I'm in LA.  I'm nostalgic for the past, but also for the present and the future, if that's possible.  Old friends and acquaintances lurk in corners at the airport terminal, outside the library on campus, the parking spot outside my old apartment, by the fountain.  I long to go back to those days, but I also long to stay in the present moments even while I'm there.  While we're laughing in line at Bay City's deli, driving on an empty LA freeway in the middle of the night, in Myka and Shiloh's living room, taking the Overland exit straight towards the temple, dancing in the middle of a dance floor with my friends and our beautiful old roommate, now a bride and a wife to someone who loves her immensely.  We long for the future of reunions, professional jobs, unborn children, potential relationships, possibilities and uncertainties.  When I lived there I would sometimes sit in a car as we drove along a highway, in awe that I was actually living there, that this was my real life.  I am still struck by that awe and wonder every time I visit.

As my plane took off and soared over the California coast as it has so many times before, all I could do was thank God with tears in my eyes for the opportunity I had to live there, to love there, to be truly blessed in my own city of angels, to give my heart to a city and a people and never ask for it back.  Life is beautiful and I'm so grateful for the chance I've had and have to truly live it.  My hope is that my heart continues to expand with every new place I live.